


A Promise Never Made

by Cascalence



Series: All About How The World Changed [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Character Death, Emotional Hurt, M/M, Panic Attacks, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 13:18:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6659665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cascalence/pseuds/Cascalence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe went to fetch milk before Sam woke up.  Turns out he wouldn't see him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Promise Never Made

Sam drew in a deep breath, stretching.  Not feeling his boyfriend’s legs tangled with his, a frown tugged at his lips.

“Gabe?” he spoke, pushing up onto his hands as he sat, looking around the room.  “Hmph,” he let out, seeing the room empty.  He climbed from the bed and shuffled to the dresser to pull out a pair of boxer briefs before he hit the shower.  He opened the drawer and grabbed a pair of slate gray ones, pausing short of shutting the drawer.  He glanced at the doorway before daring to reach back and pull out the ring box.

Opening it in a need to assure himself the ring was still within the black felt-covered container, he smiled at it, before shutting it and shoving it back into its place, in the middle of his socks.

“Showering!” he called out as he headed into the bathroom, grinning a bit.  Their three year anniversary was in four days.  Dean, despite his love/hate relationship with Gabriel, had helped Sam in planning everything.  Sam was going to take Gabe to the park where they met, when Gabriel’s dog, Roxy, had managed to break off her leash and was scurrying about avoiding her master.

Sam had managed to coax the dog to him and held onto Roxy’s collar until Gabe caught up.

They’d flirted, and Sam had felt one hell of a spark between them, right off the bat.

Anyway, the plan was a picnic, and Dean was going to put it together.  Sam knew of a clearing that would be private enough for the proposal…he didn’t like the idea of Gabe feeling pressured by the presence of others.  Not that he thought Gabe would say no, but…there was a chance of it.

Sam got into the shower, once the water was adjusted, and sighed happily under the stream of hot water.  It felt good on his muscles after all the stress that work was putting on to him.  Being a lawyer was no easy task, but he did it pretty decently.

Okay, that was modesty, but Sam didn’t like having a big head.  Every time he told Gabe that, he was assaulted with a blatant innuendo joke, and then told he deserves his ego boosts for the hard work he does.  After all, they’d only moved into this house six months ago, and it was over halfway to paid off.

Finishing the shower, Sam stepped out and towel dried his hair, pulling on his boxer briefs and rolling on some deodorant.

“Hey, Gabe, what’s for breakfast?” he called out as he stepped out of the shower.  He blinked and frowned, heading down the stairs and peering into the kitchen.  No sign of his boyfriend, and no smell of pancakes and bacon.  That was odd…did he get called in to work?  Sam shrugged and turned to go check his phone when he saw a sticky note on the fridge.

“Outta milk, Sammich!” it read.  Sam couldn’t help the smile and chuckle the note pulled out of him.  Their first date, Sam had gotten a sandwich at the diner they’d gone to.  When he’d picked it up…something happened.  He still wasn’t sure what, but it came apart.  A tomato had landed on Gabe’s plate, and chicken, lettuce, avocado spread…it’s gone all over him, from his chest to his lap.  It’d taken over five minutes for Gabriel to stop laughing.  And then he’d spoken.  “Sammich,” and the laughter had gone on another five or so minutes, this time from both of them.

A fond smile remained on Sam’s lips as he headed back upstairs to get ready for work.

It was gone by the time he came back down.  Gabriel wasn’t back.  Had he been gone before Sam got in the shower, or had he left during the shower?  Despite the feeling of stones that grew in his stomach, Sam just scribbled onto the note under Gabe’s writing.  “Had to go, see you tonight,” along with a heart.

**\---**

It was lunch, finally, but Sam didn’t feel any sense of relief.  He’d texted Gabriel when he’d gotten to work, and again mid-morning.  And there wasn’t any answer.

“Overreacting.  I’m overreacting,” Sam muttered under his breath as he leaned back at his desk.  It wasn’t unusual for Gabe to get pulled into work and be completely unable to reach his phone for hours and hours.  And he didn’t always remember to let Sam know when he was getting called in.

The thought of the candy and cake shop that Gabriel ran helped distract Sam.  Gabriel had actually perfected some of the old recipes that’d needed updating, when he started working there a couple of years ago…and Sam was hoping that, whether Gabriel wanted to marry him or not, he’d let Sam invest in Gabriel opening up his own shop.

**\---**

Evening came, and Sam stepped out of the law firm.  He still hadn’t heard from Gabriel.  Worry was building in his gut, but he ignored it, trying not to assume something had happened.

When Sam went to start his car, it made an awful noise, followed by a pop.  Sam pulled the keys back out, staring at the car.  “…Shit,” he cursed.  He’d have to get Dean to look at it.  Dean was better with cars, and Sam couldn’t afford to get his suit dirty.  Getting back out of the car, he headed for the bus stop.

He sat on the dirty, decrepit bench, waiting patiently.  And suddenly, his phone rang.  Sam pulled it out and huffed out a sigh of relief.  He didn’t know why Gabe wasn’t calling from his cell, or even just texting him, but now he was calling Sam from home.  He was just about to answer when a gun cocking sounded behind him.  He stiffened.

**\---**

“Heya, Sammy!  So, I got called in to work when I was on the milk run this morning,” Gabriel spoke, tearing the post-it from the fridge.  He crumpled it and tossed it in the trash.  “And I set my phone in the wrong place.  Gerta was a klutz, and well…it wound up in a bucket of mop water.  I guess you’re working over, so just call me when you’re on the way and I’ll get dinner started.  Got the evening off for workin’ this morning.  Love ya, Sasquatch!” Gabe spoke, before hanging up on the voicemail.

**\---**

The phone was ringing when Gabriel woke again.  He’d fallen asleep to a Dr. Sexy, MD marathon, and…now infomercials were on?  He frowned, hitting the guide button to get the time as he reached for the phone.  It was after one.  Sam hadn’t woken him, so that had to be him on the phone, saying he was just now leaving.

“Hey, Sammy!” he greeted as he answered, sleepiness in his tone.

There was silence on the other end of the line and Gabriel paused, a frown tugging at his lips.  “Sa—“

“He’s dead,” Dean’s voice spoke, cutting him off.  It was filled with rage and grief, and that’s all that Gabriel could get from those two words.  Because other than that, they were beyond his comprehension.

“What?  Dean, where’s—“

“HE’S DEAD, YOU DUMBASS!  WHY DIDN’T YOU ANSWER YOUR GODDAMNED PHONE?!” Dean’s voice roared through the phone.  Gabriel could barely understand those words at all, the line trying to cut out with the sheer force of Dean’s volume.

Something was starting to claw at the edge of his mind, and he could feel his chest constrict.  “Gerta dropped it in mop water,” he whispered, his senses becoming dull.  There was dread approaching him, like a physical being.  “I…I don’t…D-Dean, I…” he started, but then he was gasping for air.

**\---**

When he came to, Dean and Cas were in the house.  Dean was at the edge of the living room, leaning against the wall.  Castiel was kneeling beside him and Gabriel stared up at his brother.  He couldn’t even hear what Cas was saying for a long few moments.  Finally, he picked up on a repetition of, “It’s okay, Gabriel.  It’s going to be okay.  Come on, get up, it’s going to be okay.”

Sam.

Sam was gone.

A scream tore out of Gabriel’s throat as he moved, clutching on to his brother.  Distantly, he was aware that Dean had jumped from the nearly inhuman sound, but Castiel hadn’t.  Castiel was only pulling him closer, holding him so tightly.  Later, Gabriel would think that Cas had been trying to hold him together.

**\---**

Dean had had to handle almost everything.  He was Sam’s sole surviving family, and there was no will.  He turned the deed to the house over to Gabriel.  Despite his anger that he hadn’t been able to get ahold of him while Sam had been dying in the hospital, pleading for his boyfriend, he didn’t blame the shorter man.

He also had let Gabriel in on the funeral arrangements.  At least Sam had had life insurance, and that was actually left to Gabe.  It was three days until their anniversary, something Gabriel had suddenly realized in the middle of the preparations.  He’d stopped the funeral director and told him to plan the funeral on that date.  Immediately following those words, he’d broken down, and Dean had led him from the room back to where Castiel waited in the lobby, before going to finish everything up.

**\---**

“…There’s a ring,” Dean spoke, as they stared at the casket.  Gabriel, Castiel, and Dean were all that remained…and the workers waiting to lower the casket, of course.

Gabriel tensed at the words.  Even as Dean told him where it was, what the plan had been, Gabriel just shook his head, wishing he didn’t hear it, even if he knew he would want it later.  Castiel held him again, as he had every single time fresh pain lanced through Gabriel.

**\---**

He wasn’t there that night, though.  Castiel was home, and so was Gabriel, despite Castiel’s invitation.

He opened the drawer and found the ring.  He wished Roxy hadn't been hit by a car those few short years ago.  Sam had helped him through that, and right now, he needed someone, something, to hold and cry against.  He slid the ring on his finger and crawled into the bed, hugging onto Sam’s pillow but turning his head to cry into his own.  He wanted Sam’s scent as long as he could have it.

The pain was terrible.  It twisted in his chest and left him hollow.  He wanted to die.

But he wouldn’t.  Yeah, Sam wasn’t there to care anymore, but Gabriel couldn’t kill himself, knowing Sam wouldn’t want him to.  That was how Sam was.  He’d want Gabriel to live, and to heal.

He doubted…no, he knew.  Gabriel knew that would never happen.  Sam had been everything from the moment he’d met him.

“I love you so much, Sam,” he spoke brokenly to the air.  “I would’ve said yes, you know,” he said, speaking as if Sam was there with him.  It was all he had right then to ease the pain in any way.  “I would’ve said yes, in front of Dean, in front of Cas…in front of a million homophobes, I’d have said yes.  You were all that mattered,” he said, before he broke off with a wretched sob.  He felt like all the light in him was gone.  Sam had taken it with him.

Gabriel would never stop loving Sam…and he doubted he’d ever manage so much as a smile again.


End file.
